good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree.

Merchant of Venice. Act i. Scene 2.

Adriana. A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;

But were we burden'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.

Comedy of Errors. Act ii. Scene 1.

Ophelia.

But, good my brother,

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
While, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.

Hamlet. Act i. Scene 3.

PRIDE.

OFTEN ACCOMPANIES POVERTY,

Olivia. Oh world! how apt the poor are to be proud! Twelfth Night. Act iii. Scene 1.

Suffolk. Small things make base men proud.

2nd part King Henry VI. Act iv. Scene 1.

Agamemnon. He that is proud, eats up himself; pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle: and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise.

Troilus and Cressida. Act ii, Scene 3.

PRIDE OF AUTHORITY.

Isabella. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet;

For every pelting, petty officer

Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.

Merciful Heaven!

Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,

Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,

Than the soft myrtle: oh, but man, proud man,

Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep!

Measure for Measure. Act ii. Scene 2.

King Lear. Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?

Gloster, Aye, Sir.

King Lear. And the creature run from the cur ?—

There thou mightest behold the great image of authority: A dog's obey'd in office.

King Lear. Act iv. Scene 6.

PROCRASTINATION.

ITS DANGER AND IM POLICY.

Macbeth. The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it: from this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be

The firstlings of my hand.

Macbeth. Act iv. Scene 1,

King. Not one word more of the consumed time. Let's take the instant by the forward top;

On our quick'st decrees

The inaudible and noiseless foot of time

Steals ere we can effect them.

All's well that ends well. Act v. Scene 3.

K. Richard III. menting *

I have learn'd, that fearful com

Is leaden servitor to dull delay;

Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.

King Richard III. Act iv. Scene 3.

King.

That we would do,

We should do when we would: for this "would" changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many,

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this "should" is like a spendthrift sigh,

That hurts by easing.†

Hamlet. Act iv. Scene 7.

* Timorous, hesitating thoughts.

+ Referring to the vulgar notion that sighing impairs the animal powers.

PROVIDENCE.

ITS MYSTERIOUS COURSE.

Helena. He that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minister :
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,

When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown
From simple sources; and great seas have dried,
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there

Where most it promises; and oft it hits,
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits.

All's well that ends well. Act ii. Scene 1.

IT OVER-RULES ALL THINGS.

Hamlet. Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well When our deep plots do pall. And that should teach us, There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Kough-hew them how we will.

Hamlet. Act v. Scene 2.